ABF Freight Driver Development Program

I attended orientation at my home terminal in Aston PA February 25 2022. The orientation started with a meet and greet with all the office and dock staff as well as a few of the drivers who were there. Next was a few hours of videos covering everything from safety to company culture followed by some paperwork. After lunch I went with the dock manager for forklift training, I let him know I had run forklifts in the past so it was more a show me you can do it then actual training. He did show me a few trailer loading specific things as I was loading a pup trailer.

I will be starting my truck training from CDL A permit to driver Monday March 7 2022 in Paterson NJ. Not all terminals are set up to train so they get you to the closest one to home as they can. Luckily, they had 3 locations within 2 hours of me so it just came down to which terminal had an available trainer

For anyone not familiar with them, ABF is a Union LTL company, therefore you are paid for all your time. Training rate is $17 an hour. I was issued a temporary badge at orientation to clock in and out with until I get my permanent badge with my picture. They cover all travel expenses during training. You are put up in hotel near the terminal , given a daily per diem for expenses and paid current milage rate from home to location your 1st day and location to home your last day of training. If you commute in between, thats on you. Training is Monday-Friday 8am until at least 4-4:30.

Prior to training you must get your CDL A permit (combination, air brakes) and the double/triple and Tanker endorsements. Hazmat is also required but since the rules changed Feb 7, 2022, you can’t take that test until you have had Hazmat training.

Training is 6 weeks when starting from a permit. 3 weeks if you are coming in from a private school already holding a CDL A.

Thats all I got for now. To quote G-Town… “you must be laser focused on the task at hand” and I plan to be so I will add updates to this diary as often as possible

Fantastic! Wishing you all the success possible.

Nice! Wishing you the best of success at ABF, Dave. I'll be following your diary.

Thank you Packrat and Bill. Really excited and looking forward to training

Realized that I didn’t include some information in my previous posts. ABF has a great reputation and holds their employees to a very high standard and strives for excellence in customer satisfaction. That being said, their background check goes quite a bit deeper then other companies to ensure they are only bringing top prospects and drivers onto the team. I have read here at TT that most companies usually only look at your last 3 years work history and MVR for training. ABF wants to see 10 years of consistent work history and 10 years incident free MVR. I have no criminal background so I can’t elaborate on that.

They provide you with uniforms that are maintained by Cintas and you are expected take care of them as best you can. Always be in uniform on duty, and always present yourself in a friendly, professional manner.

Thank you Packrat and Bill. Really excited and looking forward to training

Realized that I didn’t include some information in my previous posts. ABF has a great reputation and holds their employees to a very high standard and strives for excellence in customer satisfaction. That being said, their background check goes quite a bit deeper then other companies to ensure they are only bringing top prospects and drivers onto the team. I have read here at TT that most companies usually only look at your last 3 years work history and MVR for training. ABF wants to see 10 years of consistent work history and 10 years incident free MVR. I have no criminal background so I can’t elaborate on that.

They provide you with uniforms that are maintained by Cintas and you are expected take care of them as best you can. Always be in uniform on duty, and always present yourself in a friendly, professional manner.

I'm following too, Dave! It's finally HERE!!! YaY!

Sidebar: I had a customer, ABF driver, when I bartended at Red Lobster in Florida, and he ALWAYS stopped in, just to grab a burger & a tea, at the bar. Plus, he could fit the set alongside the building, haha! Always polished & pressed in his uniform. Respectful; I'll always remember that. Image IS important!

Wow, about the 10 years! (Actually, Tom's company does that, too...which I thought odd.) Picky CAN BE a good thing!!!

Following, Best Wishes!

~ Anne ~

Thank you Anne. Being the face of the company, driver appearance and personality with customers is a very important part of their image. I have been a foreman/supervisor and business owner for years so those standards are already business as usual for me.

All my travel arrangements are in place. They put me up in an Extended Stay America a couple miles from terminal. ESA’s are basically little apartments, there is a kitchenette in each room. This is great for me since I do most of the cooking at home, I wont have to eat out all the time throughout training.

I have been reading the pre trip inspection list provided here a few times a day to pound the terminology into my head. Haven’t gotten into any videos, I am already familiar with engines/vehicles and can identify the parts. Since different truck engines have parts in different places, I will just wait until I’m at the make/model of truck I will be tested on to memorize my routine.

I will be leaving for the hotel tomorrow night after dinner, Sunday 3/6/22. I report to the Paterson, NJ terminal Monday morning 3/7/22 at 8am

Good luck on day 1. Keep your head on the swivel in Paterson... It makes Philly look like Phoenixville.

Good luck on day 1. Keep your head on the swivel in Paterson... It makes Philly look like Phoenixville.

I hear ya!!! Traffic’s pretty crazy. There’s 3 major highways that converge here within a couple miles of terminal. Terminal is on Rt 46 which seems to be busy all the time. Then include jug handles to make lefts and that adds another level of difficulty.

Day 1 3/7/22

Reported to terminal at 7:45, I’m always early. Met the office staff and a few drivers. Again, everyone was friendly and loves working for ABF. There are 2 trainers working in tandem and 4 of us currently training, the other guys have been there a bit and are a few weeks ahead of me.

Went out to the the yard to the 2 training trucks. We are being trained on manual transmissions, even though most of the fleet is automatic, they don’t want you to have the manual restriction in case an older manual truck or rental needs to be used. I went over pre trip inspection with the trainer all morning, in cab and outside the truck. The other students worked on coupling, backing maneuvers and road driving with the other trainer. Next thing I knew it was lunch time.

After lunch, much to my surprise, it was time for me to learn shifting. Thrown right into the fire. Mack truck with pup trailer. Took a few laps around the terminal with the trainer driving to watch what he was doing. Now its my turn!! Struggled a bit at 1st getting the timing down. Trainer was very patient and encouraged me to just keep trying. After a few laps just going from 1st to 2nd it started to click for me. I spent most of the afternoon running laps around the terminal practicing my shifting. As you can probably imagine, I was far from perfect. I did get the hang of it pretty well and was able to shift up to 5th smoothly a few times by the end of the day. For some reason, I missed 4th quite a bit and had to start over but Hey, it my 1st time. I’m sure I’ll get better with repetition.

Towards the end of the afternoon it started raining so we went back in classroom and watched a pre trip video. All in all it was a good day, started really having fun once the 1st day jitters wore off and I relaxed. Have some studying to get into before bed.

Thanks for reading, more to come another day…